America Is Feeling a Bit Less Industrious

Instead of a broad revival, American industry is seeing pockets of strength. What does that mean for long-term prospects? Spencer Jakab joins MoneyBeat. Photo: AP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... industrial production in May was what I know I might sound boring to some of you ... but it has implications for earnings for the economy in general for shipping is the big story Spencer Jacob is here to break it down you wrote about this one for your ahead of the Tape column today ... not not use usually unexpected the numbers ... but what it what are they safe for us with a telling us ... the Zulu weaker than expected weakness came from the area to be flagged utilities noted that so that's a big component of that we were looking as with the orcas de ... Generation that it was really really weak for the month ... but ... the more important thing is that ... you know that you keep hearing that America's ... industrial renaissance that the of the things are going great that were coming back to being a manufacturing our youth we keep hearing people try to sell that story you do you do that and if you look of the numbers are your half ago two years ago ... you would've concluded that's true but you withdraw a false conclusion from humble of reasons one ... is that we are coming out this horrible recession so course that the growth was going to be pretty good ... the second you have a couple of other areas of of extraordinary strength one it is the of the auto industry which is coming off this all for wash up ... and that that ... touches a lot of things sought me know beyond a saw those glass and and Madeline things are ... right ... and that's still going pretty fast but that's decelerated significantly gone from some of you know ... fifteen percent to ten percent to eighty percent to five percent this year ... the other thing is and this is for real which is the shale revolution now that that's having pretty profound effects ... one it's a kind of production by itself right people are are for extracting oil and gas from these new fields and ... building pipelines all the stuff ... and it helps other industries because a ... crew of you know it it can do with this reserve going back to us because of cheap natural gas ... but that also is is not growing as quickly as it was in the impact is not enough to lift the entire picture and women were now growing ... more slowly than average in terms of year-on-year growth in Duster production in the in the index of the Fed maintain Sosa stop back for it ... now I know la the estimates for second-quarter GT R ... in all their gear above to know that they're all trying to that opening on to the man has is tying the GPU it were we looking at the second quarter ... for looking at is is pretty weak ... manufacturing ... ok employment and in the consumer has perked up ... in the consumer is desperate we yesterday we saw ... some good consumer data on retail sales ... grew faster than expected it was a significant rebound from a month before ... um ... now I think what what we're seeing is that credit is much easier to get ... the standards of that lowered to know it just gradually as the recession phase in the river near the financial crisis facing the rear view mirror people have an easier time getting credit one ... notable because the last couple weeks is the mortgage refinancing that ... you know ... that's right um but we're not going to miss a page one today and that's ... that is a big deal ... bought ... I was still a lot of it would not ... suffer two thousandsix or two thousand in the early two thousand several people were spending the equity in their home so that's that's no longer source of of a major source of the Sto of spending people saving money by refinancing the mortgage is the best now ... suddenly reversed ... but other kinds of consumer credit are becoming much more available the striving car sales and ... another things and that that still looks ok and that's that's a relative bright spot for the economy but has to be supported by incomes apparently ... my ... arate Spencer good stuff as always think you're a much thank you